The Dragon Age: Origins Website now offers the release of The Darkspawn Chronicles, a new DLC pack for their fantasy-themed role-playing game. The module is available now for PC and Xbox 360 for $5.00 (400 BioWare Points/400 MS Points) and the PlayStation 3 edition is "coming soon." Here's word on what this features: "Play as the darkspawn! The city of Denerim, jewel of Ferelden, girds itself for war. As a hurlock vanguard, you alone hold the power to make thralls of your fellow darkspawn and drive them into the heat of battle. Heed the archdemon's call--Denerim must burn!" Thanks Darth Guybrush.

wonkawonka wrote on May 19, 2010, 07:01:There are 6 playable DLCs for this game?Not talking about a ring or a sword, but actual content to play.

I was exaggerating, and I guess I was probably adding in the promo items, but there's The Awakening, Return to Ostagar (or whatever), and now Darkspawn Chronicles, which sounds like it's going to be episodic content or something.

Not a fan of the point system either. Im not what the psychologists were thinking of. Cause when I see points.. on a console, or pc, used in any way to make a PURCHASE of something, in which I had to spend money to get those points to begin with... makes me feel like I just spent money or I will be spending money.

Have yet to play any of the last 6 or so DLCs for this game. I stopped playing a few months ago because the game started getting annoying. I never even completed it yet. I plan to pick it up again very soon though. Have a lot of catching up to do.

It also cuts down on credit card transactions, which means they pay less to the credit card companies since plenty of customers know they're going to buy a lot from the marketplace and buy more points than they need for just their next purchase. There are some articles floating around the intertubes on people getting temp-banned from Live for buying low-point values multiple times a month.

This is why the Playstation Network uses real money values but still has a "wallet" you can only add certain amounts to before spending on actual online-store purchases.

They can also gouge ... err I mean gage whether or anyone has interest in DLC. Like they can say they are going to release it on a certain day, people go and buy points expecting to buy the DLC. Then the DLC release date slips ... but EA/bioware still has yo' money.

There are many reasons sellors want to have their prices decoupled from a cash value. Mostly it is to screw the customer, though.

Points also make it a little easier to do promotions. Putting a 1600 point card on sale seems to make more sense than putting a $20 gift card on sale. It also makes it a little simpler to make it non-refundable. If you have $10 in your online wallet, you might want to be able to take that money out. If you instead have 800 points, you're less likely to think you should be able to cash that out. That leads into more promotions, where you can give away points more like you'd give away a coupon or gift card instead of cash.

I think the whole point system was put into place so it was harder to figure out how much you are spending on stuff. Especially when it comes to little games your kids might want to buy on the Xbox, it's only 400 points. But most of these games don't allow you to buy just the game straight up on the xbox interface (at least not when I looked around when trying to buy Battlefield 1943). So you go online to look up how much points are, you find that if you buy the bigger point bundle you get a better deal on the points.......that's assuming you ever use the rest of them and they fall in a usable amount without having to buy more. So buy yourself a 4000 point card, you can buy 3 1200 point games and hope you find something that's only 400..etc.

Or if you buy the 4000 point card for it...you aren't really thinking about how much actual money it is when the game only needs 1200 points 6 months later.

It's like gift cards, they hope once you buy them that you'll never use them... but they know if you do...you gotta come back to them to do so.

The reason they use points is because it makes the price an abstract. If people see that a DLC is $7, they might not buy it, but if it's 560 points, that doesn't automatically have a price value attached to it in their minds, so they're more likely to buy it.

At least, that's what psychologists say.

As much as I fucking hate carnival money systems, at least EA lets you buy the points in the right amounts. You can buy 400 points, 560 points, 800 points, etc. The only DLC that you'd start having to fuck around with points is the cheapest ones that sell for 240, but even then you can buy a 240 and a 560 with an 800 pack and not be left with points, like MS is terribly fond of fucking doing.

CJ_Parker wrote on May 18, 2010, 21:58:I'm sure it was. If I were MS I'd pay morons like you $100 to STFU.

Seriously though... it needs to be said that MS -at least in BioWare's case- has adjusted its points system, well, and as far as I remember it's not just a BioWare thing but to the best of my knowledge the points system has been adjusted universally so you will never ever have to spend more money on points than what a DLC is worth. I can confirm that as far as I am personally concerned. I bought several Dragon Age DLC packs for the PC and the packs of points I bought always matched the price of the DLC I wanted to buy so I never ever ended up with any leftover points. As far as I know that's exactly how they want to keep it for all future DLC, i.e. if you have a brain and can do simple math then there should be a near zero chance to buy more points than you need but I am extremely sure that some of the more creative fucktards out there will find ways to still screw themselves and then blame it on MS.

If that is the case why don't they skip the points system altogether, if it is exactly like you say that you never have to buy more points than the DLC actually cost. Is it for the customers convenience that they use it ? I could swear I read about several cases where people had to buy more points than shit actually cost but maybe they were as you say just fucktards that used creative ways to screw themselves so they can rage on MS.

kxmode wrote on May 18, 2010, 21:20:I hope that $2.50 was worth it Microsoft!

I'm sure it was. If I were MS I'd pay morons like you $100 to STFU.

Seriously though... it needs to be said that MS -at least in BioWare's case- has adjusted its points system, well, and as far as I remember it's not just a BioWare thing but to the best of my knowledge the points system has been adjusted universally so you will never ever have to spend more money on points than what a DLC is worth. I can confirm that as far as I am personally concerned. I bought several Dragon Age DLC packs for the PC and the packs of points I bought always matched the price of the DLC I wanted to buy so I never ever ended up with any leftover points. As far as I know that's exactly how they want to keep it for all future DLC, i.e. if you have a brain and can do simple math then there should be a near zero chance to buy more points than you need but I am extremely sure that some of the more creative fucktards out there will find ways to still screw themselves and then blame it on MS.

Because it forces you to buy in bulk arbitrary amounts regardless if you use all of them or not. Microsoft forced me to buy the minimum 1,000 points for $12.50. I then took 800 and bought Broken Steel. I haven't used the remaining 200 since. So a DLC that should have cost me $10 ended up costing $12.50. Fine I say. Microsoft you can keep that extra $2.50, but I am never using your service again. As far as I'm concerned GFWL is dead to me. I hope that $2.50 was worth it Microsoft!